Recipe: fish tajine (with vegan option)

Hi y’all!

I finally have a recipe again! Not only was I short on spoons lately to create recipes, I also seemed to be having a bit of a “writers” block. Only time will tell if things are going better or if I’m just having a few good days, but let’s enjoy it while it lasts.

I have to admit that I totally winged this recipe, but it was a one shot hit and I happened to have taken pictures. So please excuse the smartphone pictures, but this recipe is worth it, I promise! This recipe takes a fair bit of time, but very little work. If you use pre-cut veggies there’s hardly any work to it at all. I made it with an actual tajine, but if you don’t have one a dutch oven or a slow cooker is probably your best bet.

I’ll list the ingredients I used, but since most of the flavour comes from the spices a few swaps can be made to veganise it, make it cheaper or for food sensitivities. Let’s start with the fish. It may sound like a main ingredient, but the dish can do fine without it. The fish can easily be swapped with lentils and a bit of extra water or silken tofu (preferably the kind in a tube typically used for Korean stews) or you can just leave it out altogether. The second ingredient is cooking cream. I used a soy version, but dairy, coconut or rice cream will do the job as well.

This is what you need:

6 small potatoes

3 medium size carrots

a handfull of green beens

1 tomato

2 pollack filets (or other whitefish)

250 ml cooking cream

2 tablespoons tomato puree

3 medium sized garlic cloves

1 tsp ras el hanout

1 tsp smoked paprika

pepper to taste (preferably a variety with a fresh taste)

1 lime

1 stock cube + half a cup of water OR half a cup of vegetable broth

These are the paprika and pepper I used, but feel free to use anything that’s available to you.

Method:

Peel the veggies as needed (I personally didn’t bother as the potatoes had thin skin) and cut them up into bite size pieces. Layer them into your tajine, starting with potato at the bottom, then the carrots, the beans and then the tomato. Mince the garlic and spread it out over the veggies. Sprinkle the spices and crumble the stock cube over all of it. Pour over the cream and the water. Put the tomato puree on top. Then put the whole fish filets on top. Lastly put a few lime wedges on top of the fish and put the lid on.

From here on out it’s just a matter of waiting as you put it on the stove on very low heat. Let it simmer for about an hour. Theoretically you shouldn’t peek, but after about 45 minutes you can start poking the potatoes if they’re done. They should be very soft. When done serve with a lime wedge on top and rice or bread on the side.

Note: if using lentils, make sure they’re all in the liquid.

YUM!

I hope you give it a try and enjoy it as much as I did! See you next time. Bye!